Condoleezza Rice Tripoli visit opens new era in US-Libya relations

Condoleezza Rice has become the first American secretary of state to visit
Libya in more than half a century, handing a diplomatic dividend to the
country's unpredictable leader Muammar Gaddafi.

By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent

1:27PM BST 05 Sep 2008

Miss Rice is spending only a few hours in Libya as part of a regional tour of north Africa but the impact of her trip will last for years.

By flying to Tripoli and agreeing to shake the hand of Colonel Gaddafi, Miss Rice is effectively ending three decades of hostility between the oil-rich desert nation and the mainstream international community.

That hostility claimed lives in the 1980s when Libyan-backed terrorists took British and American lives in attacks such as the Lockerbie bombing and America retaliated with airstrikes on Libya.

"It is an historic moment," Miss Rice said before boarding a flight to Tripoli.

"It has come after a lot of difficulty and the suffering of many people, that will never be forgotten or assuaged, Americans in particular for whom I am very concerned."

Her trip comes after Col Gaddafi's regime publicly gave up attempts to create its own programme for producing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, a diplomatic coup achieved without the use of military force.

But while the state department boasts Libya as one of its successes in the Arab world, Col Gaddafi remains an unpredictable and enigmatic figure.

In comments made to the state media there was no sign he was anxious to cosy up to his former enemies in America.

"All we want is to be left alone," he said.

Col Gaddafi, a leader who straddles the divide between Africa and the Arab world, used typically colourful language to express admiration for Miss Rice in an interview last year.

"I support my darling black African woman," he said.

"I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders.

"Yes, Leezza, Leezza, Leezza ... I love her very much.

"I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin."

Back in the 1980s Libya positioned itself as an extremist Arab nation sponsoring international terrorism in the pre-jihadist al-Qaeda age.

Attacks by Libyan-backed terror groups against US targets, including servicemen based in Germany who were blown up a nightclub, led President Ronald Reagan to famously describe Col Gaddafi as a "mad dog".

Washington responded to the terrorist attacks by sending US warplanes, taking off from bases in Britain, to attack targets in Libya and came close to killing Col Gaddafi himself.

Washington restored diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006, following Mr Gaddafi's decision in 2003 to publicly renounce terrorism and give up his country's weapons of mass destruction.

Miss Rice will be the first secretary of state to visit since John Foster Dulles in 1953, and the highest-ranking US official since then-vice-President Richard Nixon in 1957.

"In that period of time, we've had a man land on the moon, the Internet, the Berlin Wall fall, and we've had 10 US presidents," a State Department spokesman said.

Earlier this month, Libya agreed to pay compensation to families of the victims of the Lockerbie aircraft bombing, for which it formally accepted responsibility in 2003.

But concerns have been raised by Libya's failure so far to honour the compensation deal.

Miss Rice's visit was partly intended to be a reward for successful completion of the deal, but Libya has not yet transferred the promised hundreds of millions of dollars into a humanitarian account.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch, told Reuters that he was optimistic the transfer would happen soon but that Miss Rice would press Libya on this issue.